Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

The 4 people who participated in this years advanced engineer school can file the wonderful memories away and the railroad gets back to normal activities until the fall leaf rush begins in a few weeks.

Morning preparations for train 216: 463 road locomotive and 489 helper
463 comes out first and we have 2 extra coaches staged already since 215 came in yesterday with 9 cars. They really must be getting a good charter business since this will be the second double header this week.


489 now is out to the pit getting its fire cleaned as 463 steams down to the tank. Man, that brown makes the tank almost disappear in the shadows.




463 has almost backed onto the main as 489 waits by the tipple for its turn to get in.

You're right, Sharon. That brown is dismal. Wonder if that's another movie-related paint job. They hit the handcar shed, fuel/fire shed, and the tank, all the same drab color. Hopefully, we'll get our "trademark" colors back. The tank has needed repainting for a while anyway, but the current color just leaves me feeling "blah".

Ed, note my last picture, its now the "brown blob" to me. With the light on it, the east side of the flammables locker still looks red. I do hope that they did not do what movie crews sometimes do, only paint the side of something that will be in the shot.

Does anyone know the name of the crewman who comes out early to get the locomotive ready, he seems to always wear black overalls.

Morning preparations continued and departure of train 216: 463 road locomotive and 489 helper with 9 car train




The south tipple cam died just as the train departed.




The gentleman in the gray is waving at us, though it looks like he is signaling a 'touchdown'.

I agree, hate ( and hate is such a strong word ) hate the brown paint. Does anyone know what movie is being filmed, this question may have already been asked and answered but I have not seen any postings about it.

Steve, its been asked and we only are told its a movie in the X-Man series and that came during work session E when we repainted the RPO.

Arrival of train 215: 487 cars
If you look behind 215 on the left side of the picture you can see 489 which is still at Cumbres after it helped 216 this morning.

Sharon Evans wrote:Ed, note my last picture, its now the "brown blob" to me. With the light on it, the east side of the flammables locker still looks red. I do hope that they did not do what movie crews sometimes do, only paint the side of something that will be in the shot.

Does anyone know the name of the crewman who comes out early to get the locomotive ready, he seems to always wear black overalls.

I'd have to check the pictures to see if it is Tracy or Harry. Tracy usually wears T-shirts while Harry wears collared. In the picture above it looks like Tracy. Tracy is also significantly taller than Harry.

Edwin Frey wrote:You're right, Sharon. That brown is dismal. Wonder if that's another movie-related paint job. They hit the handcar shed, fuel/fire shed, and the tank, all the same drab color. Hopefully, we'll get our "trademark" colors back. The tank has needed repainting for a while anyway, but the current color just leaves me feeling "blah".

Brown could have been chosen to be non-descript. I think even non-railroad people recognize Rio Grande Gold.
I'm going to guess that there is going to be a lot of repainting, either by the crew that did the brown or by the Friends.

Sorry everyone, computer decided to do weird things right when 215 was due in.

Pete Dahlberg wrote:

Edwin Frey wrote:You're right, Sharon. That brown is dismal. Wonder if that's another movie-related paint job. They hit the handcar shed, fuel/fire shed, and the tank, all the same drab color. Hopefully, we'll get our "trademark" colors back. The tank has needed repainting for a while anyway, but the current color just leaves me feeling "blah".

Brown could have been chosen to be non-descript. I think even non-railroad people recognize Rio Grande Gold.
I'm going to guess that there is going to be a lot of repainting, either by the crew that did the brown or by the Friends.

Actually that is what I was thinking as I noted earlier that it just blended into the background.

Pete Dahlberg wrote:

Sharon Evans wrote:Ed, note my last picture, its now the "brown blob" to me. With the light on it, the east side of the flammables locker still looks red. I do hope that they did not do what movie crews sometimes do, only paint the side of something that will be in the shot.

Does anyone know the name of the crewman who comes out early to get the locomotive ready, he seems to always wear black overalls.

I'd have to check the pictures to see if it is Tracy or Harry. Tracy usually wears T-shirts while Harry wears collared. In the picture above it looks like Tracy. Tracy is also significantly taller than Harry.

Thanks Pete...

Here's the video of the day. A much quieter day around the yard, though the painters did walk down with a couple ladders to the area of the tank this afternoon. They also had the high-lift truck down there, though I never saw them actually use it, so some work still going on with painting.

Train 216 departure - another doubleheader today, and once again, I think the same person, waving madly at us from the open gondola.



215 returned this afternoon with 487 in the lead. Not on the video, but after turning the train they pulled one of the box cars out from next to the roundhouse and brought it to the South yard, along with doing some other switching back there.



489, helper from this mornings train, returned about 6pm, well after 215 arrived. Have to wonder what they were up to all day.

That explains what I saw in my grab of 215 crossing 17. If you look closely on the left side behind 215, there is 489.